John Kerry Asks Iraq to Stop Arms to Syria

US secretary of state John Kerry pressed Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday to stop Iranian flights over Iraq from carrying arms to Syria during a visit to the Iraqi capital.

Kerry also urged Iraq's Sunni Muslim, Shia and ethnic Kurdish factions to commit to the political process as the country's precarious intercommunal balance comes under growing strain from the conflict in neighbouring Syria.

A US official said earlier on condition of anonymity that Washington believes flights and overland transfers from Iran to Syria via Iraq take place nearly every day, helping President Bashar al-Assad crush a two-year-old revolt against his rule.

Kerry said he had "a very spirited discussion" with Maliki about the issue and he made clear US unhappiness about the suspected arms transfers on Iranian flights through Iraqi airspace.

"Anything that supports President Assad is problematic," Kerry told reporters. "I made it very clear to the prime minister that the overflights from Iran ... are in fact helping to sustain President Assad and his regime."

Kerry's visit had not been previously announced to the public.

Speaking before the meeting, the US official said Iraq had inspected only two flights since last July and that Kerry would argue Iraq did not deserve a role in talks about neighbouring Syria's future unless it tried to stop the suspected arms flow.

Iraqi officials denied allowing weapons to be flown from Iran to Syria through Iraqi airspace. Abbas al-Bayati, a member of the Security and Defence committee in parliament, said: "We have done our duty by randomly inspecting a number of Iranian flights and we did not find any leaked or smuggled weapons."

"If the US is keen to push us to do more they have to give us the information that they have relating to this," he said.

At his news conference, Kerry said the United States had "agreed to try to provide more information" to the Iraqis and suggested that sentiment in the US Congress may be turning against Iraq because of the suspected arms transfers to Assad.

Iraq's Shia-led government says it takes no sides in Syria's conflict, but its interests are closely aligned with those of neighbouring Shia Iran, a strong supporter of Assad.